REVIT STILL CANNOT IMPORT .PDF FILES?!?!?

Ok - based on a 'Timesaver' clip from 2010 I just found, Autodesks flagship architectural/engineering design software was (and apparently still is) incapable of importing a .pdf file - but if you can listen to this motherfuckers squeaky-ass voice for a few minutes, you will find out that you use a 3rd party application like snagit to make a .jpg and import that instead (searching for 2013 Revit import .pdf comes up with nothing - so I assume it's still fucked):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9FpECXMqw

Presented by Patrick Villella, LEED AP, AEC Application Engineer:
 







Now - clipping tools are one of the most awesome advancements I've seen in recent years, light years ahead of trying to do screen-shots and edit them.  The fact that they are basically free (unlimited trial) is hard to conceive of, especially when you consider that they come in tiny files that download quickly, install fast, function flawlessly, and accomplish the tasks that they claim to be able to.  For free - in a world where a $5,000 a seat set of bloatware is what we are expected to do our actual design with.


Obviously, this guy is coming at it from the architectural perspective - which is that you now have linework that you can snap 3d walls to.  I can use the same trick to import stuff into my electrical drawings that I just need to see, and that is apparently what I am stuck doing since nobody gives a fuck about compatibility with one of the most common file formats that I receive or have access to for information/details on various pieces of equipment, fixtures, etc.

Falling back on the creative use of 3rd party applications seems to be a common theme in the 'practical' use of Revit (if anything this ass-backwards can be considered 'practical'.  Now they can sit back and try to pretend like there was never a gaping hole in the functionality of their software that had to be filled with the ingenuity of someone else.  So - one problem solved.  But now we are on the the next problem, and the next problem. 

It's never ending with Revit.  I have had to fake it so much on this project that I feel like Patrick Villella's wife.

Fuck Autodesk, fuck Revit, and if you don't like it, FUCK YOU.

Revit Has A Shitty Text Editor

I've read more than one post on a Revit forum complaining about text entry in Revit - and more than one smug head-up-their-own-ass response from a Revitbot about how 'Revit is a magical sparkle-fairy unicorn that doesn't have to include more than a rudimentary text editor because... did I mention sparkle-fairies and unicorns?

This kind of 'magical thinking' as I like to call it is a big part of the problem.  When presented with a valid (often glaring) shortcoming in the Revit software , the average Revit Dick-Socket will start sputtering about 'well, it's not supposed to be drafting/word-processing/whatever software' instead of addressing the very pressing reality that this software is a lagged out, rigged together, mentally challenged clusterfuck of epic proportions.

I seriously would not give a single fuck if these douchebags and their smug fucking attitudes wanted to go suck the Revit dick all day long - as long as they weren't trying to drag everyone else down with them.  For those that love Revit, and are productive with it  - more power to you (although, unless you are just wiring up floors of vanilla office buildings, I'm calling you out as a fucking liar).

You've been able to convince, shame, or outright threaten a lot of people into converting to Revit-ligion (one of the greatest parts about a shit economy is that you can basically force employees to do whatever you fucking want them to do - up to and including making them work extra hours fighting with shitty software, but making them think that it's their inability to complete the project during normal hours is due to their own shortcomings, so they won't attempt to charge you for overtime.

You've ignored the complaints of poorly designed, pathetically coordinated, vastly over-budget projects because 'eventually all this hard work is going to pay off when Revit suddenly starts doing all of our work for us and rainbows shoot out of our asses'.

It's a sad state of affairs - one made worse by the knowledge that those responsible can't be forced to give even half of a fuck, aren't the ones being hung out to dry, and will probably continue to get away with this shit because people are too scared to speak up, and demand well-designed, intuitive, fast-running, production-minded software.

At least some people are.

For the rest of us, who are concerned with productivity, profit, low-stress, coordination, and (most importantly) presentation graphics - we need to be the ones to speak up.  Ranting online, grumbling to ourselves in our offices, and getting off the occasional snarky comment just isn't going to cut it anymore. 

We need to bring this battle to the enemy - and while that enemy might be stupid, slow, and incompetent, they are also well-funded, aren't scared to use propaganda tactics that would make a Nazi or Soviet era Russian blush, and feel no remorse for how many people are affected by their actions.

Even without Revit, these people would exist, and would be doing everything in their power to cut productivity, but with Revit, they have carte blanche to fuck everyone over, and then pretend to be powerless to do anything about it.

Fuck that, fuck them, and if you don't like what I'm saying - fuck you.

No Polyline Clipping? Fucking Really?

So... Revit is only capable of clipping a square?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, considering what a massive hunk of shit the rest of the program has proven to be.

I've got a retarded clusterfuck of projects that (completely out of my control) have been linked and rigged together into totally lagged out fuckshittery - and I need to clip out a piece that is sandwiched between two other portions of the project.

The best (read: only) suggestion that I have received is to put a 'filled region' over the top of the offending areas, leaving only the portions that I want to show up on my sheet un-obscured.

Now - the fact that I should have to do something that half-assed in a set of software that costs approximately $5K a seat, and has had over a half-dozen releases (since autodesk purchased it - instead of developing their own BIM software, or putting BIM capability into ACAD) is just fucking sad.

This is basic fucking shit, and there is no fucking way that Autodesk should be getting away with hawking their bullshit software.  Anyone else would've been dead and buried - but Autodesk had the money and clout to build an illusion of functionality around their software for long enough to get too many people too deeply embedded in it to be able to pull out.

Once they had Architects on-board, and a system in place to marginalize and silence dissenters, it was all downhill from there.  Architects are already some of the least productive people I have ever met in my life - except maybe for the architect lackies that are responsible for the day to day design work - there are rare exceptions, some of whom I work with (and who are painfully aware of their companions lack of concern for things like schedules, budgets, etc. as their own hard work gets cancelled out by sheer slack and dumbfuckery).

Basic fucking shit people - get the fuck on it.

Next time: Revit Has A Shitty Text Editor

Eat A Bag Of Dicks

No matter how frequently or emphatically I attempt to describe Revit MEP in the lowest common denominator terms possible, I don't think I am fully getting across just exactly how terrible of a software package it is.

Imagine you had a task to do - it's not an easy task by any means, but it's achievable with the skills and abilities you possess and the resources at your disposal.

Now imagine - just as you start this task, someone just randomly comes in and takes a gigantic shit all over your work.

Then - just as you are picking the last piece of corn out of your keyboard, and making a little bit of headway, someone walks in - kicks you in the goddamned teeth, and takes a fresh shit on your work.

Then people just start spraying shit, flinging it, piling it up and jumping in it, eating it, force-feeding it to each other, commenting on how 'good it tastes', and otherwise covering themselves from head to toe inside-and-out with fecal matter.

Now - you are starting to get an idea of what it's like to work in Revit MEP, and around other people in the Revit environment.  It's a fucking clusterfuck of epic proportions - one only made worse by throngs of shit-eating, Revit loving, fuckheaded motherfuckers with mouths full of dick.

I seriously cannot state this often or vigorously enough:

FUCK REVIT MEP, FUCK EVERYONE AT AUTODESK RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS PIECE OF SHIT, FUCK ALL OF THE REVIT CHEERLEADERS - I WISH YOU ALL BRUTAL BODILY INJURY AND LONG MISERABLE LIVES IN UNIMAGINABLE PAIN, ANGUISH, AND SUFFERING.

Revit Power Distribution

Okay - so I go to put some fucking panels into a goddamned project.

I've got a metric FUCKTON of panel families - the ones that came with Revit, every major manufacturer of panelboards (Square D, Siemens, Cutler Hammer, etc.) makes Revit families.  Almost none of them work correctly in Revit.  Some attach correctly (assuming your architect hasn't fucked something up), some don't, and some have all kinds glitches and shit.

Why not just one fucking panelboard family?

One family that has the ability to specify voltage, amps, MB/MLO, number of spaces, whether it is a branch circuit panel or distribution panel, recessed/surface - instead of a goddamned library of bullshit.

Why the fuck not?

Oh - that's right.  Revit.

Fuck Revit.